


Arachnophobia

by Sermocinare



Category: Watchmen - All Media Types
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-03-18
Updated: 2011-03-18
Packaged: 2017-10-17 02:36:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 940
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/172015
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sermocinare/pseuds/Sermocinare
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Adrian is horribly afraid of spiders. Eddie and Dan think that this is horribly amusing.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Arachnophobia

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the Watchmen kink meme

"Adrian! Are you all right?"

Daniel's voice cuts through the pain, the sea of tiny supernovae that color Adrian's vision in shades of red and white. The last thing he remembers is looking there, looking for it, and then something hit his temple and now he's on the floor, groaning. His hand goes up to his head, fingertips gingerly pressing against the side of his head, right where whatever it was hit him. He winces, and there's a warm and sticky feeling to the skin.

"I'm all right."  
His vision slowly clearing, Adrian sits up and blinks a few times, chasing away the last remnants of the brilliant canopy of pain. The Comedian is crouching over the slumped figures of the gang members they had been confronting, tying them up. The three of them had followed one of the thugs to the cellar of an abandoned building, where the rest of the gang had been hiding.

Daniel's face is in front of his, looking concerned:  
"Are you sure? That was quite a blow you took there."

"And one my grandmother could've dodged, too," Blake snarls. "Speaking of, she also would've been more useful than you. What the fuck's wrong with you, Ozy?" He sneers: "Your brilliant mind too distracted with more important things than covering our sorry asses?"

Adrian doesn't dignify that with an answer. Not that he has one, at the moment. Instead, he just clenches his jaws and tries to stand up, which he manages, thank heavens, even though he feels a bit dizzy. Daniel is shooting the Comedian an angry look, but he doesn't say anything, which means that Blake is probably right with his assessment of Adrian's usefulness in this fight.

Without thinking, his eyes wander to the spot where he last saw it. Gone. For just one second, he is relieved, but then a cold panic grips his stomach, rushing through his nervous system like poison. If it's not there, that means that it's moved somewhere else. It could be right next to him, or on the ceiling above him, or on the floor running towards him or... he quickly scans the room, but there’s no trace of it, the light being too dim. He's got to get out of here.

"Let's go," he mutters, moving towards the door: "I remember seeing a phone on the corner one block down, we can call the police from there, let them take care of the rest."  
Blake grunts his approval, busy with lighting his ever-present cigar, and he can hear Daniel's footsteps right behind him.

And then Adrian stops dead in his tracks. It is there. Right above the door. Sitting there with its huge, black, hairy body and its eight crooked legs, two of which are wrapped around the doorframe. As if it is waiting for him. Waiting to let itself fall down at just the right moment. He can see its long, alien legs twitch. His body freezes, limbs going cold and stiff as if somebody had dumped him into a sea of ice. The only thing still moving is his heart, which is racing so fast he can hardly feel it any more. He wants to look away, tear his eyes from the horrible sight of that thing, but he can't. If he looks away, it will move. Again.

"Something wro... oh."  
Daniel has followed Adrian's gaze, and for a moment, his jaw hangs open in sheer, dumbfounded astonishment. Then, he turns his back towards Adrian and starts giggling.

"You both gone fucking nuts now?" Blake snarls, looking from one to the other, from the frozen-in-his-tracks Ozymandias to the giggling Nite Owl. "What the hell's wrong with you? Ozy, would you kindly just move your goddamn pretty ass through the door?"

"He can't," Daniel gasps out between two giggles. "Spider."

"Spider? You mean he's..." And Blake guffaws and almost doubles over, shaking with laughter: "Oh, shit, that's good. That's fucking grand. The great, wonderful Ozymandias. Afraid of a tiny fucking spider."

Adrian can feel the heat rising from underneath his collar right up to his hairline, and he presses his lips into a thin line, then turns around to glower at the other masks through narrowed eyes. "So what if I'm arachnophobic," he hisses, and the words would sound almost like a threat if it weren't for that slight but noticeable undercurrent of humiliation.

"I'm sorry, Adrian," Daniel takes a deep breath and wipes at the corners of his eyes, still grinning, "but it's just... you do know that they're harmless, don't you?"

"Yeah, after all, he's the smartest man on the planet." the Comedian snickers.

"Just for your information," Adrian draws himself up to his full height, crossing his arms in front of his chest and trying his best to look superior even though his face is probably still glowing red, "there are several species of Araneae in North America, and several more around the world, whose bite can cause a quite painful death. So far from being a silly fear based purely on imagination, it's actually an evolutionary advantage."

The Comedian shakes his head, snickering, and wipes away his tears of laughter. Then, he walks over to the door and plucks the spider off the doorframe by one leg. "Ozy," he holds the thing up, waving it in his direction and making him flinch back before tossing the spider into a dark corner of the room, "you're fucking priceless." Still laughing, he waltzes out through the door, leaving Adrian to sullenly glower at his back.

Then, Daniel's hand is on his shoulder, patting him gently: "Come on. Let's get out of here."


End file.
